Wednesday, May 8, 2002

POLICE investigating the IRA murder bid on former RUC agent Martin McGartland have finally named the men they suspect were involved in the shooting.

And detectives have also disclosed for the first time the make and calibre of the gun used in the attempted murder in June 1999.

The Sunday Mirror has obtained a copy of a letter sent last month by a Northumbria Police officer to McGartland which sets out the police investigation to date.

The force has given its "reasons" for the arrest of suspects and convicted terrorists Henry Joseph (Harry) Fitzsimmons and Scott Gary Monaghanin October 1999.

The officer writes: "In relation to the the two arrests mentioned, Henry Fitzsimmons was arrested as a result of the following:

(i)He was arrested and imprisoned as a result of you informing the authorities of his terrorist activities, therefore he had motive; (ii) he shares a good likeness to one of the men seen by the witness as being involved; (iii)reliable intelligence has been received that he was involved in the shooting."

The detective added: "Scott Gary Mongahan was arrested due to the fact:

(i) He shares a good likeness to one of the men seen by a witness as being involved; (ii) he has been the subject of a voice identification in respect of a taped answer phone message which had been evidentially linked to the preparation and planning of your murder. That message has been forensically examined; (iii) reliable intelligence has been received that he was involved."

Glasgow-born Monaghan was subjected to a voice analysis test after police recovered a tape from an answering machine in which a man with a Scottish accent tried to buy a Bedford van from a private seller in the Newcastle area weeks before the shooting.

McGartland told the Sunday Mirror: "I am pleased that Northumbria police have finally confirmed that they have identified these two men.

"I would now expect the full force of the law to be used to bring these two men to trial and ultimately to justice."

The police letter also reveals that one of two guns found two months after the shooting had now been forensically linked to the murder bid.

The gun that fired the shots was a Czech-made CZ 9 mm pistol.

Monaghan, 34, was set free early under the Good Friday Agreement in 1999 after he had been jailed for a total of 1,004 years for a bombing campaign across Northern Ireland.

Fitzsimons was jailed for 15 years in 1990 after he was caught in a house in north Belfast trying to assemble a booby trap car bomb.